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Help hospices to relieve pressure on hospitals

October 3 2016, 12:01am, The Times

Sir, Lord Darzi is right that the NHS needs to look beyond hospitals if it is to meet soaring demand from patients and make critical savings to its dangerously overstretched services (“We need to keep high-cost patients out of hospital”, Sep 30).

Hospitals are facing unprecedented pressures and this is set to increase given demographic changes and the predicted surge in the number of older people living for longer with multiple, complex health needs.

Hospices already play a vital role in helping to relieve pressures on hospitals, but with greater support from the NHS they could do so much more. Hospices are helping to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions by providing support in people’s homes or other community settings and also through advice and information services…